A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced five PKK members to 18 years in prison over their roles in two terror attacks that killed a young teacher and two soldiers in the Kozluk district of Turkey's southeastern Batman province in June 2017.

Defendants Lazgin Ekinci, Menderes Ekinci, Necat Ekinci, Maşuk Çelik and Mehmet Fidan were each sentenced to an 18-year jail term by the Third High Criminal Court in Batman on the conviction of "providing arms to a terror organization."

Reiterating the charges, the prosecutor overseeing the case said that the defendants prepared the bomb and placed it in the vehicle, acting in accordance with the PKK terror group.

On July 9, 2016, PKK terrorists launched an attack targeting a vehicle belonging to Kozluk Municipality Mayor Veysi Işık that was carrying his nephew, lawyer Muhammet Işık.

Though Muhammet Işık was not wounded in the attack, stray bullets from the terrorists' assault rifles also hit a car carrying 22-year-old music teacher Şenay Aybüke Yalçın and her colleagues. Yalçın was heavily wounded by the gunfire and died at the hospital, while another teacher in the same car was also wounded but survived.

After attacking the mayor's vehicle, the terrorists drove a car filled with explosives into a checkpoint near a gendarmerie station in the district, killing two soldiers and wounding a civilian.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. the EU and NATO, and resumed its decadeslong armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

The terror organization has been responsible for the death of some 40,000 people.

Southeastern and eastern Turkey particularly suffer from PKK attacks. Along with military and police officers, a large number of civil servants and civilians have been killed in armed attacks, car bombings and roadside bombs.